70 Chapter-III AN ANALYSIS OF TECHNICAL ENGLISH COMMUNICATION SKILLS COURSE FOR ENGINEERING STUDENTS IN ACHARYA NAGARJUNA UNIVERSITY 3.1 INTRODUCTION Engineering and technical education in developing countries have witnessed enormous expansion during the last three decades. A majority of these Institutions of higher education have relatively good infrastructure and qualified teaching staff. However, the question of general efficiency and effectiveness in utilising these resources requires attention. Presently, the focus in Engineering education in developing countries is on teaching the basics of specific branches of learning in Engineering/Technology with the use of prescribed textbooks. Only a few institutions are keen on offering their students the knowledge and training pertinent to meet the needs of industry, as a part of their curriculum. Very few Universities have allotted, within the curriculum, time to be spent by students to gain employability skills. A clear vision regarding the global skills that the students require and the strategies needed by them to meet the needs of the industry are the need of the hour. Good communication skills in the global language i.e., English, is one of the most important skills that decides the future prospects of an Engineering/Technology students. Hence, there is an urgent need for radical change in perspective and in the methods used for establishing new curricula for the specialised fields of study, and more so, for English.
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Chapter-III
AN ANALYSIS OF TECHNICAL ENGLISH COMMUNICATION
SKILLS COURSE FOR ENGINEERING STUDENTS IN
ACHARYA NAGARJUNA UNIVERSITY
3.1 INTRODUCTION
Engineering and technical education in developing countries have witnessed
enormous expansion during the last three decades. A majority of these Institutions of
higher education have relatively good infrastructure and qualified teaching staff.
However, the question of general efficiency and effectiveness in utilising these resources
requires attention. Presently, the focus in Engineering education in developing countries
is on teaching the basics of specific branches of learning in Engineering/Technology with
the use of prescribed textbooks. Only a few institutions are keen on offering their
students the knowledge and training pertinent to meet the needs of industry, as a part of
their curriculum. Very few Universities have allotted, within the curriculum, time to be
spent by students to gain employability skills. A clear vision regarding the global skills
that the students require and the strategies needed by them to meet the needs of the
industry are the need of the hour. Good communication skills in the global language i.e.,
English, is one of the most important skills that decides the future prospects of an
Engineering/Technology students. Hence, there is an urgent need for radical change in
perspective and in the methods used for establishing new curricula for the specialised
fields of study, and more so, for English.
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3.2 GENERAL OBJECTIVES OF ENGINEERING COLLEGES
The objective of any Engineering college is to impart Science and Technology
based knowledge education and to develop the professional skills of a student for
immediate employment which would help him to ultimately develop in his own technical
field in the country.
Owing to globalisation, employment opportunities have multiplied, as many well-
reputed companies have come to India in search of potential young Engineers/technocrats
with excellent communication skills. A survey conducted by these companies revealed
that a majority of the Indian youth (about 83%) are lagging behind in their
Communication Skills in English. Technical efficiency with better Communication Skills
benefits not only the employee but also the company. Hence Communication Skills are
one of the prerequisites for obtaining employment. It has thus become indispensable for
any Engineering/technology graduate to acquire English Communication Skills for
getting selected for a job.
As most of the graduates in India desire to take up jobs immediately after
obtaining their first degree from the University, they should have a complete grooming
for a professional life by the time they walk out of the Universities. Hence the four year
B.Tech duration of time they spend in a professional college should make them well
rounded professional personalities. As communication skills in English have become
imperative for getting selected for jobs, it is expected that the Universities fulfil these
needs by offering well designed English courses to the first year students of professional
courses. In this context, the present research analyses has taken into consideration, the
English curricula of four Universities in the State of Andhra Pradesh; two of them --
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Acharya Nagarjuna University, Nagarjuna Nagar and Jawaharlal Nehru Technological
University (Kakinada) -- are State Universities, and the other two – Koneru Lakshmaiah
University and Vignan University, Guntur -- are privately managed Deemed Universities.
As the prescribed textbooks are supposed to provide direction to the entire course of
teaching English, a detailed, critical analysis was carried out to assess the effectiveness of
the programme. Various aspects of the textbooks were analysed to examine whether the
intended objectives have been fulfilled, and whether their Communicative Skills were
improved through the use of the prescribed textbooks. Statistical data was collected and
the analysis followed.
The present Chapter deals with the prescribed syllabus for the English course in
Acharya Nagarjuna University College of Engineering and Technology, Nagarjuna
Nagar.
3.3 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE ENGLISH COURSE
There is a widespread assumption that Engineering students could obtain better
knowledge and comprehension of their technical subjects if they possess good standard in
English. Hence, it becomes necessary to analyse the Engineering syllabus called
“Technical English,” to assess its usefulness during the course and later in the careers of
the students.
An attempt has been made in this study to analyse the syllabus as well as the text
books prescribed - Objective English for Competitive Examinations (Third Edition) and
Developing Language Skills–I (Foundation books). This study attempts to find out the
attitude of the students who hail from the two streams: Board of Intermediate Education
(Andhra Pradesh) and Central Boards (CBSE and ICSE, New Delhi) towards the
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textbook and methods of teaching and testing. A review of these materials was made to
assess to what extent these materials and methods are in accordance with the syllabus as
well as the expectations and needs of the learners.
3.4 TECHNICAL ENGLISH TEXTBOOK
A career in Engineering demands relevant Communication Skills in English. A
Textbook, instead of trying to instil all the nuances of English into the minds of students,
could provide selected aspects of English to help them understand their other subjects
through the medium of English, to carry out the tasks assigned to them.
The syllabus of Acharya Nagarjuna University is common to all the branches of
the first year Engineering Course. The syllabus is graded thematically. It exhibits a task-
oriented approach with a skill-based pattern. The two textbooks prescribed are Objective
English for Competitive Examinations and Developing Language Skills–I respectively.
The materials in the syllabus are organised under three units. Each Unit consists of
different topics related to the General Communication Skills, Technical Communication
Skills and Vocabulary and Basic Language Skills. The materials in the syllabus are
arranged under the following three units.
Unit-I
General Communication Skills: This area exposes the learners to some standard
varieties of linguistic communication.
1. Guided composition
a) Paragraph writing
b) Essay writing
c) Confusable words
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2. Reading comprehension
3. Letter writing
Unit-II
Technical Communication Skills: This area falls under English for specific purposes
(ESP) which trains the learners in basic technical communication.
1. Report writing
2. Corporate information
3. Technical words
Unit-III
Vocabulary and Basic Language Skills: This unit offers the learners some basic
aspects of language like vocabulary, structure and usage which are common to many
contemporary tests.
1. Basic word list – a list of 500 words
2. Idioms and phrases and their use
3. Correction of sentences
4. Analogies
5. One word substitutes
6. Antonyms & Synonyms
The main objective of these prescribed texts for the B.Tech. English Course in
Acharya Nagarjuna University is as follows: to make the learners “linguistically aware
and communicatively competent.” It claims to have paid special attention to “the
contemporary tests on language and industrial needs, keeping in mind the current societal
demands.”
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3.5 SAMPLE STUDY
One hundred and eighty Students from Electronics Communication Engineering
(ECE), Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE), Computer Science Engineering
(CSE) and Civil Engineering (CE) disciplines form the selected group from the Acharya
Nagarjuna University College of Engineering and Technology. The survey was
conducted through a three-point scale questionnaire given to the respondents to assess
four main factors of Communication Skills -- Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing
(LSRW). Of the respondents, 162 had State syllabus and 18 had Central syllabus up to
their X standard.
3.6 METHOD OF ANALYSIS
A questionnaire was distributed to obtain the views of the students. The
questionnaire contains questions related to their parental background, and the school
board through which they have taken their school final examination etc. Opinions was
gathered orally, from the students of Engineering College. Students were asked to share
their views on the content, form, presentation and other aspects like the English language
skills. A survey was carried out among the students of four different Engineering
disciplines in Acharya Nagarjuna University College of Engineering and Technology.
3.7 SYLLABUS
Syllabus of the course is available to the students. The general perception of the
students is that the textbooks contain the syllabus is very important. (The detailed
syllabus of Acharya Nagarjuna University is given in Appendix–III.)
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3.8 ANALYSIS OF THE TEXTBOOK
The content is viewed to assess its capacity to motivate the learners and its
usefulness in the form of providing information to them. The corporeal aspects are
studied to see its usefulness to the students to gain and retain employment. As any
English course offered to the students of Engineering should make them proficient in
their communication, the most important aspect dealt with in the Survey is on the
communicative aspect.
The analysis was done on the three components in the textbooks:
1. The Content Aspect
2. The Corporeal Aspect
3. The Communicative Aspect
3.8.1 Content Aspects
A textbook should motivate the students to get interested in the topics/lessons
given in it. The questionnaire contains two direct questions on content aspect.
3.8.1.1 Improvement in Creating Motivation
The question posed to the students was,
Q. “Do the Textbooks create an interest in you?”
Response: The answers obtained for this question draw the conclusion that the content
did not motivate all the students on the same level. The students who gave positive
answer (8.33%) were from the urban and elite background and possess some idea about
the topics. Many students who hailed from rural areas and vernacular medium (43.88%)
of study did not feel that the content was interesting. 47.77% of the students felt
motivation was provided “to some extent.”
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Analysis: The textbook, Objective English for Competitive Examinations contains
exercises on reading, writing and language focus tasks only. The other text Developing
Language Skills-I covers mainly oral tasks, by which the teachers have a chance to plant
the seeds of self-confidence in the learners.
A question arises whether the book provides necessary motivation to the learners
as well as to the teachers. Motivation alone makes them go forward to achieve the
intended objectives. Regarding the fulfilment of the objectives of the syllabus nearly all
the teachers perceived that the textbook provides sufficient motivation if the students
participate in the classroom activities.
The response of the student is a pointer to the need for change in the content.
3.8.1.2 Suitability of the Text to the Engineering Course
Q. Are the topics relevant to the Engineering Course?
Response: As far as the relevance of the topics is concerned only 27.77% of the students
felt that the topics are relevant. The others seemed to be oblivious to the relevance and
usefulness of the topics.
Analysis: A language textbook should impart skills in the target language, but it should
also be relevant to the learners and the course. When the question is asked whether the
concerned textbook is relevant to the Engineering course, a majority of the learners
responded that it is not relevant (72.23%).
3.8.2 Corporeal Aspects
The corporeal aspects consist of the enhancement of the skills and imagination of
the learners. So questions are set to extract their individual opinions on aspects like the
cover design and some other factors in language learning etc.
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3.8.2.1 Proper Design of Technical Terms
Q. Are the technical terms included in English Syllabus properly designed?
Response: The results show that the Central Board students are more acquainted with
technical terms than the other students drawn from other Boards of study. 90.12% of
State Board students have not agreed that the terms are clearly defined. Even the Central
Board students are unable to comprehend the technical terms.
Analysis: The chief requirement, to get selected to a technical job, is the knowledge of
technical terms and their usage. The response given above is not very encouraging and
forces one to conclude that even the Technical English chunk is not properly presented,
though the students hailing from the Central Board of Education are slightly better than
those from State Boards. Even they are not very satisfied with the syllabus given under
the heading, Technical English.
3.8.2.2 Promotion of Technical Knowledge or Language Learning
Q. Do the technical materials in the Textbook help the learners to increase the technical
knowledge or to increase the rate of language learning?
Response: This question “whether the technical materials help the learners to increase
the technical knowledge or to increase the rate of language learning” got very interesting
responses. Only 35.55% approved that it promoted the students' technical knowledge and
a very surprising response of 85% approved that it increases their language learning.
Analysis: The chunk given under Technical English is aimed at helping the students by
increasing their prospects of employment. But strangely the response of the students is
that it merely improves their vocabulary but it has not improved them in their technical
skills.
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3.8.2.3 Development of Creativity
Q. Do the tasks prescribed in the textbook encourage you to improve your creativity?
Response: The State Board students find the topics created impetus so that they can do
the tasks creatively. Since the students were not exposed to such tasks earlier they feel
that the tasks are creative. However 61.11% of Central Board students did not agree that
they are creative and the teachers also expressed the same opinion.
Analysis: A learner should be provided with a wide variety of tasks in the prescribed
textbooks, which could encourage his urge to learn and his creativity. Majority of Central
Board students accept that the text Developing Language Skills–I encourages creativity
through the various exercises the text provides, though, about 74.69% of State Board
students find the text monotonous. Because the students hail from rural areas, they may
not have been exposed to any kind of language activities and they might have felt that
they are a little bit difficult to answer in a big classroom where they might not get
personal attention.
Note: The responses for this question also show a considerable disparity between the
Central and State Board students. While the Central Board students are thorough in such
creative exercises through their English Textbooks of ICSE and CBSE streams, the State
Board students have found them more interesting. However, the execution of these tasks
by the teacher appears difficult because of the huge number of learners in a class. Hence
this is reflected in the response of State Board students, who felt that they did not get
enough help and personal attention to complete those tasks successfully.
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3.8.2.4 Importance of Eye-Catching Cover Design
Q. Is the cover design attractive?
Response: The finding shows that except for a few students all the other students have
felt that the cover design is not attractive. Nearly 77.78% of them, including Central
Board students, opined that the cover design is not inspiring.
Analysis: A majority of the students have opined that the cover design did not arouse
their enthusiasm.
3.8.2.5 Language Usage in other Situations
Q. Do you find it easy to use new words (vocabulary) in your interaction/in other
situations?
Response: While collecting data orally for this question the survey found that the
students expressed their inability to use the language in a proper way. The students from
the State Board, particularly, find it very difficult to use English in other situations; and,
hence the positive answers fell into a low percentage of 4.93; whereas, the Central Board
students could make use of it as they had an early exposure to the language. On the
whole, only 7.23% of students are able to use the English language. Though 72.77%
students are able to comprehend the text it is not helping them in the use of English
language in practical and real life situations. 20% of the students are completely unable
to use the language in other situations successfully.
Analysis: One cannot deny the fact that if a person achieves competence in a language
he/she must be able to apply it in real life situations. There lies the completion of
language learning. Though the needed vocabulary and structures could have helped the
students in their corporeal life, the method of using them is not shown. English is
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universal; but a selection of prescribed lessons/books are made to ensure that the students
master whatever is given. If the material is not given properly to them, even the best
selection would have been done in vain.
3.8.3 Communicative Aspects
The mastery of any language depends mainly on the learning of the Basic
Communication Skills such as LSRW. Without acquiring these skills one cannot become
an expert in a language. Hence, for effective communication and mastery of any language
all the four skills -- Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing are imperative. Along
with these skills students need to have a good foundation in Vocabulary and Grammar.
Robert Lado in his book, Language Teaching, has stated that,
The correct order of teaching the skills is LSRW. It is a fact that
reading and writing are partial skills and exercising them
constitutes partial language experience where as speaking and
listening included are total language experiences (1971: 48).
Among the four skills, Speaking and Writing are called productive skills, whereas
Reading and Listening are called receptive skills. The textbooks under study are analysed
in this backdrop.
3.8.3.1 Comprehension of the Text
Q. Are the topics easy to understand, through the support material provided in your
text?
Response: A majority of the students, about 68.33% of them are able to understand the
text, to some extent. Even the students, who hail from rural areas and from the State
Board, are able to comprehend it to some extent. This is the authentic value of the
syllabus design. Some teachers might be unfamiliar with the scientific and technical
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topics, but this data has proved the usefulness of the textbooks in this aspect. As the
topics are taken from the prescribed books for competitive examinations, the students
find the text useful to some extent.
Analysis: As the topics start from General Communication Skills to Technical
Communication Skills and finally to Vocabulary and Basic Language Skills, majority of
the students are able to comprehend the textbook. The following are the findings from the
first year students of Engineering Courses for the question whether the topics are easy to
comprehend. To supplement the above question the following question is designed to
collect the actual data from the students.
3.8.3.2 Pictorial Presentations
Q. Are there adequate pictures, charts, graphs to understand the context/topics in the
textbooks?
Response: From the collected data 72.22% of the respondents expressed that there are
pictures, charts and graphs which help to understand the context in the text-books are
inadequate.
Analysis: The textbook appears to be simple in Language presentation as the majority of
students found it comprehensible. But their response was unenthusiastic to the question
related to the presentation of pictures, charts and graphs. The Textbook for Engineering
Students should have these aids as they deal with them in their optional subjects.
Moreover “information transfer” from one medium to another is an important skill.
Hence converting the text into a picture or graph or representing the material studied in
the form of table improves not only the skill of the learner but also stimulates the learner
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to use his imagination. The course designer should have taken this point into
consideration.
3.8.3.3 Development of Language with respect to Grammar
Q. Do you think that your language has improved with respect to Grammar through the
material provided in your text?
Response: To interpret the rough scores, the following data was analysed. Nearly 11.67%
of them responded that they had improvement in grammar. Some exercises, in the
textbook Objective English for Competitive Examinations are exclusively meant for
improving their grammar; helping the students to achieve the application of grammar in
spotting errors. 80% of the students confess that they are able to improve their grammar
only to some extent. The remaining 8.33% of them are not sure of their improvement or
they could not understand the question at all.
Analysis: To create a contemporary context, usually the excerpts and selections in the
texts are used from articles, newspapers and magazines. The text Developing Language
Skills-I reveals the tasks related to real life activities such as advertisements,
conversations etc... For example, the advertisement given here teaches various aspects of
grammar:
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In the textbooks, the following tasks are given to the students on the basis of the above
advertisement --
Oil is represented by a drop. What are some of the other ways in which oil can
be represented? Discuss with your group and make a list.
Is this advertisement meant for people who live in villages or people who live
in towns and cities? Do people in cities waste more oil than people in villages?
Discuss in small groups and justify your opinion.
Look at the word “carelessly”. It has been formed by forming two suffixes to
the word “care”: care+less+ly. Similarly “unfortunately” is made by adding a
prefix and suffix to the word “fortunate”: un+fortunate+ly.
a) Pick out the prefixes and the suffixes in the following words:
needlessly walkable traveler simplify
importantly reproduce disuse reporter
unlimited helpless wasteful mismanagement
b) Make as many new words as you can by adding prefixes / suffixes to
the following:
limit help important work friend break
Explanation is provided to the students as to how they can use contracted
forms, in spoken English.
Look at the word “Let’s”. It is a combination of two words, ‘Let ‘and ‘us’.
Contracted forms should not be confused with possessive nouns, which denote
possession or something that belongs to the person mentioned, e.g.: Priya’s
bag, Sunil’s book.
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Given below is a list of contracted forms. We can ask them to expand
them to their full form and practice saying them aloud: